'Lost archive' of Beach Boys memorabilia being auctioned off in London

LONDON - A cache of apparently forgotten material dubbed "the lost archive" of the Beach Boys, one of America's greatest and most commercially successful bands, is being put up for auction.

The collection of thousands of documents included what seems to be the band's first royalty check, for $990, dozens of signed contracts, and handwritten and copied scores to "Good Vibrations", "California Girls" and many other hits from their heyday in the 1960s.

A group of investors is seeking to sell the entire collection as one unit with the expectation that it will bring several million dollars.

"We thought it would be a crime to break it up," says Ted Owen, who heads the Fame Bureau, the London-based firm handling the sealed-bid auction which ends on May 15.

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